GEOTECHNICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING
Research
Geotechnical, materials and pavement research is conducted in laboratories, at field locations, and also at the Larson Institute (The Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute), which includes a one-mile closed-loop test track. Laboratory facilities include Civil Infrastructure Testing and Evaluation Laboratory CITEL) and the Materials Research Institute (MRI). Two affiliated research centers are the Northeast Center for Excellence in Pavement Technology (NECEPT) and the Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies.
Topics of research projects recently completed or in progress include:
- Developing engineered clay soils using polymers and diatomaceous earth
- Developing “tunable” clay soil systems
- Use of coal combustion products in civil engineering structures
- Geosynthetic-reinforced pavement structures
- Modeling and monitoring mass transport in cracked concrete
- Predicting early-age cracking in restrained concrete using computational fracture mechanics
- Utilizing recycled glass in concrete as cement and sand replacement
- Unbonded concrete overlays for airfield pavements
- Variability of flexural strength test results from field-cured beams
- Evaluation and rehabilitation recommendations for a pre-stressed pavement
- Full-scale instrumentation, evaluation, and testing of Superpave pavement sections across Pennsylvania
- Moisture damage to asphalt concrete
- Polishing resistance of portland cement concrete pavements
- Use of artificial neural networks for rehabilitation performance predictions for pavement management
- Variability of pavement condition data
